Sunday, May 6, 2012

I was surprised to learn that Richard Mourdock has a sense of humor. I haven't seen that side of him in the videos I've seen of him before. The video above which was recorded about a week ago. Mourdock cracks a couple of jokes at a gathering of conservatives and Tea Partiers in Madison, Indiana, and then says something profound while talking about the kick-off of his campaign in February of last year. Here's my rough transcript [from 3:12 to 4:35]:

When we began our primary on February 22nd, 2011, I knew it was going to be a long, long slog until May 8th, 2012. When we gathered at the Arch Garden... there were about 200 people gathered that day. And I did something that I know shocked all of them, but I did it to make a promise to them and to put a vow upon myself which was to begin that announcement of candidacy that day by saying that we were going to do something at that moment that we would do again on the night of May 8th, 2012, when this campaign ends--regardless, how this campaign ends. And that is, we began with a round of applause in tribute to a person who's given great public service for more than 50 years of his life, and that is Senator Dick Lugar. He deserves the respect of every single one of us even though we may have times we disagree with him. If you've ever met Mr. Lugar, he is a wonderful man. He is a gentleman--he truly is. He's a very nice guy. I had people--after our debate the other night when the audio went off--they saw us still on camera talking and joking. It is impossible not to like Dick Lugar.

Professor Jacobson of LegalInsurrection no longer feels sorry for Dick Lugar because Lugar still refuses to commit to endorsing Mourdock if Moudock should prevail on Tuesday. Why is Lugar doing that? Poor advice from his campaign staff. That's just more ground that Lugar is ceding in the waning days of this election.